Inside America’s Controversial Commando Conference

TAMPA, Florida -- Scandal. Political intrigue. Tricked-out assault helicopters disgorging masked Special Operations Forces. A noisy, smoky mock gunfight. These are just about the last things you'd expect to see at a trade show. But SOFIC -- that's the Special Operations Forces Industry Convention -- had all this and more.

That's not to say the show, held in Tampa over three days last week, didn't also feature all the usual trappings of an industry confab. All the big defense contractors, plus plenty of little ones, were there showing off their latest radios, robots, weapons, vehicles and other gear. There were "networking breaks" over coffee and brownies. There were boring discussions of acquisitions processes. There were booth babes -- models hired to lure the largely male attendees into chatting with company reps.

But the highlights of the show were the things SOFIC had that countless other confabs rarely do. The simulated battles. The surprise, high-profile speaking guest. The controversy over one general's ill-conceived public remarks.

What follows is a visual sampling of the show's people and products, with exclusive photos by Wired's Luanne Dietz.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

A Better, Tougher Robot

Small recon robots for U.S. ground troops keep getting better and better. One of the latest developments is iRobot's First Look -- a tracked, backpack-portable, radio-controlled 'bot weighing just five pounds. With a camera on each side and "flippers" allowing it to lurch over small obstacles, the $20,000-a-copy First Look is just the thing for scouting ahead of advancing troops. Plus, Special Operations Command is thinking about dropping them from helicopters or drones.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

Smart Rocket Swarm

Even commandos need air support sometimes. But they want to be as discrete as possible even when they're dropping bombs and launching missiles. At SOFIC, arms giant BAE Systems unveiled a new armor-penetrating version of its Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System -- a laser-guided, 2.75-inch-diameter rocket. Helicopters and jets can fire them several at a time, with each rocket tracking a different target. The blast is just big enough to take out an armored vehicle or punch through a wall, but not so powerful it endangers nearby civilians, BAE hopes. "It's very, very accurate," says Kim Unberhagen, a BAE manager.

Video: BAE Systems

Robot Playground

Some companies had shapely booth-babe models, or chocolates or logo pens to hand out. ReconRobotics trumped them all with a robot playground -- a miniature two-story building and a mock riverbed -- where attendees could play with the company's latest ReconScout XT "throw-'bot." You could toss the 1.2-pound, camera-equipped robot, shaped like a dumbbell with wheels on each end, into the building or simulated river and maneuver it through the obstacle with a handheld controller, pictured. The neatest part: to activate the 'bot before throwing, you pull a grenade-style pin. Cost: $13,000 per copy.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

Airshow in a Can

On the show's second day, Special Operations Command and some of its closest foreign allies put on an impressive flying display above the river behind the convention center. The miniature airshow featured a CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, MH-47 and MH-60 commando copters and a C-130 cargo plane dropping high-altitude parachutists. The CV-22 -- notorious for its finicky engines -- was most restrained, merely making a careful pass over the assembled crowd, but the helicopters went in low, just feet from the water, to drop off swimmers and assault teams fighting in a mock battle.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

Duck and Cover

The airshow was just the first act in a loud, smoky simulated battle involving dozens of U.S. and allied special operators. They dropped in from copters, rode in on machine-gun-armed boats or piled out of Humvees, firing blanks at men dressed as enemy troops and wielding unloaded AK-47s. Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn scored a small role as a pretend hostage, swiftly rescued by the boat crews and spirited away under the cover of gunfire as pyrotechnic charges exploded on the docks.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

Pocket Radar

All alone deep behind enemy lines, Special Operations Forces could use a little help keeping guard. A little company called Spotter RF is offering a miniature radar system that never falls asleep and can track an approaching human being from half a mile away. The firm's ground surveillance radar and its tripod together weigh 25 pounds, fit in a backpack and can connect to handheld video display via wire, radio or a 3G wireless network. Power comes from any combination of batteries, solar panels and generators. The radar has already seen use by unspecified commando forces, Spotter RF CEO Logan Harris tells Danger Room.

Video: Spotter RF

Man's Robotic Best Friend

While other companies counted on government funding to develop large, wheeled cargo 'bots, Lockheed Martin bet its own money on the Squad Mission Support System. As the Army cancelled other cargo 'bots over the past few years, the Lockheed program survived -- and today an upgraded version is being tested out by Special Forces in Afghanistan under a $1-million Army contract. Essentially a smart All-Terrain Vehicle with cameras, laser sensors, GPS and sophisticated computer algorithms, SMSS is programmed to follow designated soldiers around the battlefield, hauling their equipment for them. "Soldiers basically love them," Lockheed's Don Nimblett tells Danger Room. But he admits the 'bot still has problems moving through tall grass and over ditches.

Video: Lockheed Martin

The Host With the Most

The trade show was jointly organized by the National Defense Industrial Association and Special Operations Command, but SOCOM boss Adm. Bill McRaven was undeniably its public face. McRaven, who famously oversaw the forces for the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, gave several speeches and press conferences and introduced the event's major guests. It was a rare bit of public showmanship for a commander who says he prefers to keep his organization's activities under wraps. "Eighty percent of what we do doesn't get publicized," McRaven said.

Photo: Luanne Dietz/Wired

General Opens Mouth, Inserts Boot

One thing McRaven probably would have preferred remain under wraps was Special Operations Command's plan for possible war with North Korea. At an afternoon panel discuss, Brig. Gen. Neil Tolley, chief of U.S. commando forces based in South Korea, said his troops "leap" into North Korea to spy on buried military targets that are concealed from satellites. Tolley's comments clearly implied the spy activities were occurring today, but in fact he was merely describing plans, the Pentagon said later. When I repeated his initial words in all-too-brief blog post for another publication, it sparked a minor international crisis -- something I naively never expected. Tolley initially claimed I fabricated the story until, faced with multiple accounts of his speech, he admitted I had quoted him accurately. "I should have been clearer," Tolley said in a statement. And I should have realized what a big deal the story was from the beginning -- in that case I would have checked with the general's staff before publishing. My apologies, by the way, to readers who tracked two days of updates from me on my own blog and now know way more about my life than they ever wanted.

Photo: SOCOM

Surprise Guest

Comments by another guest were only a bit less controversial. One evening after the show Secretary of State Hillary Clinton swept in behind a wall of security personnel for a surprisingly long and passionate speech. She praised America's Special Operations Forces and called on them to work more closely with State Department bureaucrats and diplomats in the coming era of low-intensity warfare. Clinton also mentioned a recent State Department campaign to counter the online rhetoric of Yemeni extremists. Clinton said her agents countered the extremists' internet chatter with messages of their own. Initial press reports described the campaign as a "hack," though in fact the State Department simply had bought ads on the extremists' websites.